Hijacking of large tractor-trailer trucks and tanker trucks by terrorists can have devastating consequences. Trucks carrying valuable commercial cargo or even hazardous material are increasingly vulnerable to hijacking. Over twenty-thousand truck hijackings in 2001 worldwide have been reported and billions of dollars of cargo have been lost, in addition to the loss of human life caused by terrorists and the resulting disruptive fear and economic loss. Also, large trucks themselves can cost up to $150,000.
In a recent speech, California Gov. Gray Davis has been concerned that a hijacker can turn a big rig into a motorized missile. Attorney General Ashcroft warned Congress of potential terrorist attacks using trucks laden with hazardous materials or explosives. Large cities are particularly vulnerable to trucks used as motorized missiles. Numerous gasoline tanker trucks supplying gas stations, can be stolen at gunpoint, driven into cities, and exploded within tunnels, upon bridges or at the foot of tall buildings or shopping malls occupied by many persons. Substantial portions of cities could be shut down as a result of even one such theft and truck misuse. Trucks abroad carrying propane have recently pulled up in front of houses of worship killing many people. Also, inspections of tanker trucks at key locations, transporting gasoline, can reveal little because the gasoline itself constitutes the bomb itself. Recently, interstate highways have been shut down for substantial time periods due to tanker trucks accidentally crashing into bridges, even in the absence of a terrorist attack on them; the impact of the crash itself produces the bomb.
Various approaches have been proposed to meet these threats. One approach is to have the driver send a radio signal to the police or central trucking dispatcher in order to summon law enforcement personnel if the driver is in trouble. Using another approach, a driver can cause lights and sirens on the roofs of tractor-trailer trucks to summon law enforcement and yet another approach employs the Global Positioning System (GPS) to alert a central dispatcher by radio that the truck has improperly deviated from its intended trip itinerary. However, the use of radio links to alert truck dispatchers at remote stations that alert other persons like the police at other stations, wastes valuable time. Dispatchers being so notified by radio may have briefly left their stations when the emergency call arrives. Also, such radio links can be unreliable at times which is particularly detrimental during crises. Radio transmissions can be interfered with by RF generating sources and large obstacles such as tall buildings, creating canyons in cities. Another problem with these approaches is that the resulting use of law enforcement to counter the terrorist or cargo thief, can involve car chases and gun battles that can result in loss of the lives of law enforcement officers, the truck driver, or drivers of passenger cars in the vicinity of a truck being recaptured. If the truck is disabled and parked by the side of the road in response to a hijacking, the intruder is likely to flee the scene rather than stand and fight. Less importantly, traffic flow will not be stopped for extended periods.
Accordingly, it is submitted that large truck security is better served by avoiding such highly destructive confrontations between law enforcement and hijackers by discouraging hijacking attempts in the first place. One such approach is to disable the truck by for example, grounding the ignition if a proper all-is-well code is not inserted into a truck disablement apparatus by the driver; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,933 to Cort, that involves having a central dispatcher send a secret digital code to the driver in response to a request sent by the driver to the dispatcher, and upon receipt of the digital code from the dispatcher, the driver inserts the code into the device to prevent the ignition from being disabled. At a later time this process is repeated when the driver again contacts the central dispatcher. This process relies on the aforesaid somewhat unreliable radio link approach. Another problem with this approach is that it is cumbersome and too slow to obtain prompt truck stoppage, and having the driver input the code as described distracts the driver from keeping his eyes on the road in the interest of safe driving. This is particularly important for a gasoline truck that often explodes in crashes on impact, and thus can be used to bomb a nearby target, as mentioned above. Likewise with respect to a tanker truck that can spread poisonous gas e.g. chlorine gas over a wide area upon impact. U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,765 to Washington discloses the use of a physiological device that can disable an ignition system of a passenger car upon operation by an improper driver, but the patent does not suggest its use in connection with hijacking or apparatus to provide the desired rapid action to rapidly stop a truck in the process of being hijacked.
The present invention is believed to provide apparatus for overcoming the above stated disadvantages of prior anti-hijacking proposals in a safe, reliable and fast acting manner.
In order to prevent a hijacker from stealing a large tanker truck or tractor-trailer from a driver while it is idling just before leaving a truck stop, or while waiting for a green light, and driving it away, a truck disabling device such as an ignition interrupt circuit is made to disable the truck, while being driven, in the absence of an xe2x80x9cmaintain-truck-operativexe2x80x9d OK input code, that is periodically fed into a microprocessor by an authorized driver during each time interval of a succession of intervals lasting about four minutes, to keep the truck going without being disabled. The OK input code is preferably produced by the authorized driver inserting his hand once during each successive interval into the commercially available hand shape reader, provided that the driver""s hand profile matches a stored hand data template of one or more authorized drivers in the hand reader. If a hijacker drives the truck away, his hand will not produce the OK signal required after several minutes and the truck will become later disabled.
If the biometric recognition device is a preferred facial feature reader, the truck can be much more rapidly disabled upon being driven by a hijacker, since the facial feature reader would almost immediately stop producing OK data input signals upon the authorized driver""s absence, to enable stoppage of the truck.
However, the hijacker could defeat these systems by occupying the second passenger side area, while forcing the driver to proceed, by threatening the driver with a weapon. The driver would be told to do whatever it takes to proceed, and the driver would normally keep inputting the OK input code to keep the truck going.
This action by the hijacker is thwarted by quickly disabling the truck in response to an attempt by the hijacker to sit on the passenger seat, or stand or crouch on the floor in the neighborhood normally occupied by the second passenger side seat. Mats containing pressure actuated switches are affixed to the passenger side seat, if present, and over floor areas or article storage bins in the neighborhood of the seat. Such switch mats are commercially available and some are called xe2x80x9cPress-At-Any-Pointxe2x80x9d sensing switches and are electrically coupled to the aforesaid control micro-processor that disables the truck when the weight of a hijacker, upon occupying the truck cab, actuates the pressure sensitive mat by closing switches embedded in the mat. Other unauthorized persons such as hitch-hikers would also disable the truck. Should the driver accidentally step on the mat, he merely resets the system by restarting the ignition. A sign could be posted near the truck doors: xe2x80x9cTRUCK WILL NOT OPERATE IF A SECOND PERSON OCCUPIES THE CAB.xe2x80x9d This helps stopping a hijacker from an attempt to hijack in the first place, which normally provides the best security. Another approach is to block an intruder from entering the passenger side area altogether by means of physical barriers such as removable fences having thin steel barrier elements, or transparent partitioning, that could be locked to the truck floor with a key or bolted down. Time locks could also be used for this purpose.
Apparatus is also provided for even more rapidly thwarting theft of a tanker truck carrying explosive, flammable or dangerous cargoes thus turning the truck into a weapon by a terrorist in a very short time period. In contrast with the hand biometric sensing device, with its delays due to its xe2x80x9cevery four minutexe2x80x9d periodic driver hand authenticity test, facial feature sensor means are provided that require no action by a truck driver, and which produce an almost immediate OK input signal in response to continuous, rather than intermittent, scanning examination by the facial feature reader of the face of an authorized truck driver. Should a hijacker replace the driver in an attempt to drive the truck, the truck disabling device can stop the truck in a very short time because use of the facial feature sensor does not employ the aforesaid successive test intervals calling for driver hand insertions every four minutes or so. This is of extreme importance in connection with a tanker truck carrying an explosive cargo that can be used as a bomb on wheels in a few minutes. The body sensor in this embodiment of the invention, requiring no driver action, is preferably a facial feature sensor, although a sophisticated biometric eyeball reading device using a dual image field beam splitter, that does not interfere with the driver""s vision of the road could be used. Also, the absence of manual hand insertion into the reader to periodically input the OK signal, enhances safe driving even more, which is even more important in connection with the transportation of explosive cargoes.
Regarding other features, a code known only to the dispatcher, could be employed with a conventional electronic lock to disable the entire system for a period where it is desired to permit a second person to occupy the passenger seat area in the usual way. Also, should a person tamper with the intruder sensing switch mat, by cutting the electrical coupling between the mat and the data processor, the resulting interruption of current flow through the cable can be sensed to actuate the truck disable device. A more affordable maintain-truck-operative input sensor includes a slender push button keyboard remote sensor having four-in-line pushbuttons to be contacted by four fingers of the driver, and clamped upon and under the steering wheel for hand wrap-around actuation. A TV type infra-red link could link the keyboard remote sensor to the data processor.